John Romero responds to id buyout

John Romero was one of the founding members of id Software, but left to company to start Ion Storm instead.

id Software founder John Romero may have left the legendary developer to form Ion Storm in 1996, but he's still a synonymous with the Quake maker to a lot of people - so what did he think of the recent sale of id Software to Zenimax Media?

Well, according to Romero's twitter feed (via VG247) he's both shocked and disgusted by the fact that id Software is now owned wholly Zenimax Media, the parent company of Bethesa Softworks.

"ZENIMAX??????? Disgusting," tweeted Romero just after the sale was announced, following it up a few hours later with "Fallout 3 bought DOOM. Wow."

While Romero fell into disgrace after Daikatana he's still a hugely important and recognisable face in the games industry - one often credited as inventing the term 'deathmatch'. While Daikatana may have proven a total failure it's worth remembering that Ion Storm did have critical success with other titles, most notable Deus Ex and Anachronox.

Having apparently calmed down since his initial tweets, Romero has since posted once more to make his feelings on the sale a little more clear.

"I guess I was shocked and sad to see the id Software of old changed forever today. It's a new day and a new id," said Romero.

Zenimax Media and id Software have assured fans that the sale will not affect the studio massively and that id Software will remain pretty much the same.

Romero didn't work on it no, but it was an Ion Storm production and it was Romero who founded the studio and gave Spector's team the autonomy to finish up the game. May have been different teams, but it's worth remembering that if Romero hadn't founded Ion Storm, hired Spector and let him get on with it then Deus Ex might not ever have come into being.

I actually liked Daikatana.
the only gripe I had was one huge bug.
i played the game first time, got more than halfway through before seeing I could increase the power of the Daikatana by using it a lot.
Started again, used only the Daikatana.
Got up to the maximum level of power for the Daikatana, and about 10mins later in the game, a point where the games crashes, everytime.
I've tried it a few times since on later systems, and still crash in the same place everytime...

Anyhoo, it seems the people at Bethesda have their heads screwed on correctly after Oblivion and Fallout 3....
Can't see what harm it could do...yet.
;)

Christ, why does everyone all of a sudden assume that the two developers are now one in the same, and that all that is going to come out of this is a wave of ******* Doom/Fallout Frankengames? Honestly.

Fallout did not buy Doom. Zenimax bought id. It is just like EA buying a developer (but not shredding the team among different development projects). They get the benefits of a big name, and big money, but they are still id, and all of the team are still there.

Originally Posted by SkiddywinksChrist, why does everyone all of a sudden assume that the two developers are now one in the same, and that all that is going to come out of this is a wave of ******* Doom/Fallout Frankengames? Honestly.

Not in any other case, but Beth sft is a Virus that destroy other ppl's works

It's not even like that as EA is a Publisher. ZeniMax is a parent company of Bethesda Soft. They're not actually a publisher, they're just a media conglomerate. ZeniMax may have been started by Bethesda Soft owner, but that doesn't mean they're the same. :p

Besides, both developers do different things. One's RPG and one's FPS, they'll never over lap because they've both got different products to add to the publishers line up. What use is buying id Software if they're just going to produce more of the **** you've already got? Might as well just buy some upstart studio and get them to do it...

It's not even like that as EA is a Publisher. ZeniMax is a parent company of Bethesda Soft. They're not actually a publisher, they're just a media conglomerate. ZeniMax may have been started by Bethesda Soft owner, but that doesn't mean they're the same. :p

Besides, both developers do different things. One's RPG and one's FPS, they'll never over lap because they've both got different products to add to the publishers line up. What use is buying id Software if they're just going to produce more of the **** you've already got? Might as well just buy some upstart studio and get them to do it...

I didn't really mean the business dynamics behind the acquisition, more how it effects us gamers.

At the end of the day, all this really means for us is that they have more funds and a much bigger oppurtunity for media coverage and advertising, aka the jobs of a publisher. I know that they are not a publisher like EA is, but for all intents and purposes the effects are going to be the same.

Zenimax said they were leaving ID as it is, letting them run as normal... its not like they bought them out and fired loads of employees and told the rest to start working on some bs movie license game...